“In advance of asking for something new, we should give thanks for what we have already been given.” Senior priest.

“It is not through your tradition but through your thoughts and actions that I have encountered the Shogyoji Samgha.” Professor John White

“You cannot get along in this world by virtue of the Dharma (truth) alone. It is only through a real live person that the Dharma can be taught. If you cannot trust that person [who teaches the Dharma], it will be impossible for the Dharma to be conveyed [to you]. Should you deny this simple fact, you will be unable to attain faith.” Dhama-Mother Ekai.

“If you live in a taya house but have no problems, it is perhaps because you are managing to smooth things over for the moment. If you do have problems, however, this is your chance to question yourself about your behaviour towards the Buddha, to start seeking a solution to those problems and eventually to attain absolute inner peace.” Young priest at the temple.

“From the ground where I am standing a spectacular view opens up before me. My gratitude embues it with even greater width and depths.” Head Priest.

“Gratitude and repentance. In this world we repent in order to forestall a scolding and give thanks in order to maintain good relations. When we live in a taya house, however, gratitude and repentance are brought about through our unconditional surrender to the Buddha in return for all that has been done for us.” Young priest.

“In a taya house there is no need for worldly rules and regulations. People's actions are harmonized through loving kindness.” Young priest.

“Taking a step forward. In the secular world this simply means deciding on the direction one is going to take while accepting surrounding phenomena. In a taya house, however, this expression also includes a sense of dynamism, because it is only through our encounter with others who can attest to what we have accepted that we are moved to take that step forward.” Young priest.

“In the world at large the word ‘home’ signifies a castle, protecting us from what lies without. With a taya house our home is an open place where we can breathe fresh air from our surroundings and have no need to defend ourselves.” Young priest.

"Despair, loneliness and anxiety can afflict every one of us. Accordingly we tend to think we should enjoy our time in this world because our lives will not be given us back again. Living in a taya house, however, we learn to accept such negative emotions as an inevitable part of existence and so come to a deeper understanding of our lives.” Young priest.

“It is because we realize how we have come to know Three Treasures that we really appreciate the immeasurable depth of our encounter, our karmic meeting.” Head Priest.

“We recognize and respect others. Henceforth we discover ourselves, other people and the land on which we live.” Senior priest at the temple.

“Hearing the expressions of thanks uttered by those priests who had just received the transmission of the traditional ceremonial service to Amida Buddha (Kokushikidenju), made me understand the true meaning of the way in which the Head Priest has very humbly been serving the Buddha face to face.” Dharma friend at Kasugayama.

“When we sincerely desire to listen to the Dharma and understand who we are by listening to all Buddhas, our Dharma friends, talking to us, all this fulfills the activity of benefiting oneself and benefiting others. The essence of the Samgha lies in this fact.” Head Priest.

“It took a certain amount of courage to speak about my innermost thoughts at Dharma meetings. I was greatly relieved, however, to find all of you accepting these problems as if they were your own. I feel that the words voiced in tonight’s talk, ‘[Buddhas] become one with sentient beings by softening their glorious light’ constitute the skilful means, the working of great love and compassion, of you who are all Buddhas.” Young woman.

“Having undergone the chomon (introspection session), I feel very strongly that our Samgha is a place where the more deeply I become aware of my karma, the more love and compassion I find myself receiving.” Young Dharma friend living in a taya house.

“There is a much loved horse called Haruurara whose popularity has been increasing every time it loses a race. Last December the horse became enormously celebrated when it recorded its hundredth successive defeat! Rennyo Shonin states, ‘You should attain faith by yielding to others. It is only by receiving the Buddha’s great love and compassion that you can acknowledge defeat in logic and overcome your feelings of obstinacy.’ What a wonderful message that it is when we attain faith by yielding to others that we receive the Buddha’s merits.” Senior priest at the temple.

“There is a Western proverb, ‘Men control the world and women control men’. Is this the reason why [for Prince Shotoku] his wife, mindful of wisdom, was Mahastamaprapta Bodhisattva？” Senior priest at the temple.

“If, despite the amount of times you meet together, you remain unable to encounter the workings of the nembutsu, that is a very serious matter. You should not find yourself satisfied merely with the warmth of the meetings or the bright atmosphere of the Samgha. Diligence in service to the Buddha, infinite joy beyond this world and the purity of the Pure Land should also be manifest.” Head Priest.

“Even if we see people as true children, those who have never been awakened to ‘true parenthood’ will only revert to their original parental relationship, restricted by selfish love and affection.” Venerable Daigyoin Reion Takehara’s Dharma words.

“Faith is an awakening that leads us, through ageing and illness, to the realisation that our body is a gift and our mind totally ignorant.” Head Priest.

“Since earliest childhood my mother would always tell me that, though asking a question might be a temporary source of embarrassment, not doing so was a permanent source of shame. The wisdom of those words of hers now echoes in my mind.” Woman living at the Renseidojo.

“The fact I came to renounce the world and enter a taya house within the Samgha was the working of the Great Love and Compassion that illuminated my own personal karma and led me to bow down before it, ensuring I became thereby one with the nembutsu.” Priest living at the Seiwa Taya.

“His Eminence Jung-woo, the Head Monk of Guryong Temple in Seoul, has stated that life after sixty is a preparation for our journey to the Pure Land. Now that I have entered a taya house my life is starting in the true sense.” Dharma friend half a year after his retirement.

“If I cannot work joyfully in the Samgha, where everyone understands and supports me, how can I hope to make any meaningful contribution to society?” Young Dharma friend at Futsukaichi.

“Bushido is the moral code the knights were required to observe. It is not a written code. It consists at best of a few maxims, handed down by word of mouth or stemming from the pen of some well-known warrior or savant. More frequently it is a code, unuttered and unwritten, but possessing all the more the powerful sanction of veritable deed and of law written on the fleshly tablets of the heart.” FromThe Bushido by Inazo Nitobe.

“I have now had the chance to visit the temple along with my son. Looking back, even if my heart suddenly stopped beating, I would have no regrets.” Dharma friend who had come on a visit with his son after recovering from illness.

“Knowledge only ever becomes such once it has been assimilated by the mind of the learner and actually shows in their character.” (From The Bushido by Inazo Nitobe)